Cowboy Recollections of James Canyon Landowners from Otero County, New Mexico

At that time the road down James Canyon was awful bad it wouldn’t have been a good cow trail in this day and time. The first building coming out of Cloudcroft down James Canyon was the Pump Station. It was run by steam. They used wood and coal. In the fall of the year they hauled wood to burn in the winter. Sometimes they would have ricks of wood a hundred yards long, four feet wide and four to six feet high. The first farm and ranch coming down James Canyon belonged to Eli Moser, the next one to Will Turner, the next was John Campbell’s and the next one high up on the south side of the canyon was the Painter Place, and the next 2 farms was E. T. Tate Baird then A. J. Sewell.

This is where the Wimsatt Store is now. The next place belonged to Nat Baird. Then the Evans Place where the Pine Springs Post Office was. This place is now owned by Oren Baird. At the mouth of Slough where the Sixteen Spring Canyon Road turns off old man Jesse Whit had a sawmill and blacksmith shop and just back of the Whit Sawmill to the north was an old bachelor by the name of Cal Slough. His place was quite a hold out for people going out and in Sixteen. The next place down James Canyon was owned by J. E. Colonel Edgington, who was the county surveyor. Then at the east end of the Edgington farm is where the James Canyon Cemetery is today. At the time I first came down James Canyon there was a log church at the Northwest corner of the cemetery. The next farm was owned by Jim Dale then next was the Caleb Holden place, then on the north side of the road where Jergin’s Flour Mill was later built was owned by Luke Porter and across the canyon to the south was A. J. Posey’s place where the VIV Ranch is now. Next was owned by P. W. Hickson, this is where the Burgett Floral House is now. The next place is at the mouth of eight mile canyon was owned by Charlie Smith, at that time Smith owned a horse stable or barn in Cloudcroft. The Smith farm now has three different owners. C. M. Harvey Est., Velmer Lane, and Homer Hughes which is the old Curtis place. It is called by a good many people as the Grandpa Posey Place. Just north of the highway on this place is where the Center Point School and Church stood. Just east of this school on the next farm is where the Old Red Top School house stood. Dolf Winona’s house now is in the same spot where the Red Top School stood. This land in the early days belonged to the Bradford place. It now is owned by Velmer Lane. The next farm at that time was owned by Brock Carmen and is now owned by Elver Hadley. Next was owned by Bob Littlefield. The present Highway 83 divides this place. On the south is owned by Foy Varble and the north of the road is owned by Will Parker. The next place is also divided by the highway. The south side is owned by Pete Ragan and the north side of the highway is owned by Will Parker. In the early nineteen hundreds this land was owned by Jack Kelley. Just north of this property in three mile Canyon is the old Jesse Hadley Place. It also is owned by Will Parker. Next place was then owned by a man by the name of Lucas. It was later owned by Johnnie Posey and is now owned by a company called GWR Ranch. The next place in the early days was owned by a man by the name of Ellingwood. It is now owned by Everett Hadley. The next was owned by Will Paxton. It is now owned by Kenneth Potter Jr. The next was then owned by old man Fowler. He was a great old man. It is now owned by Jimmie Mahill. The next and last place in James Canyon was then owned by old man Teen Clayton Sr. I believe the place where James Canyon runs into the Penasco was Patented by a man by the name of James. This is how James Canyon got its name.

I have written this information for my brother John L. Parker’s grand daughter. I was born June 18, 1892 at Weed, New Mexico. I wrote this information March 6, 1962.

Will Parker

LIFE ON THE FARM

I would like to remind you of a few changes I have seen on James Canyon in the last fifty years. The landowners I have just finished writing about. Most all of the early nineteen hundreds farmers and ranchers had big families and they made a living for their families and their horses and milk cows which they had to have. About the first of March each year you would see horse drawn machinery from Cloudcroft to Mayhill. In the first part of April they would start planting oats for grain. About the middle of May they would plant Irish potatoes. Then in June and July they would plant oats and barley for hay. They most always raised a bumper crop. It was a problem at times to get rid of their crops especially their potatoes. They would haul them to Carlsbad, Roswell and El Paso by wagon and team. It would be quite a show if the young generation could see the way they harvested their potatoes. You would see the women and children crawling on hands behind a plow picking them up and throwing them in piles to be picked up and stacked. They didn’t work for so much per hour. They worked from early to late if you hired a man to work for you, you paid him form $1.00 to $1.50 per day.

They commenced harvesting about the first of September. Sometimes it would snow before they got through. Them days the children didn’t get much schooling. The only transportation they had to school was some walked, some rode burro, some rode horses, some went in buckboards. At that time there was two small school houses on James Canyon, one on the Andy Sewell Place that is where the Wimsatt Store is today. The other was the Red Top School. It was where Dolf Winona’s house is today. In the early days these farms were inclosed with rails split by hand with wood maul and wood wedges.

I think I have wrote enough you can get something you want.